Jack Anderson

Conscience, Elegies, and Ballet Theatre

American Ballet Theatre deserves praise for once again including
"Dark Elegies," Antony Tudor's ritual of mourning, and "The
Green Table," Kurt Jooss's anti-war ballet, in its autumn season.
Both are ballets of conscience and compassion.

"Dark Elegies," which Tudor created in 1937 to
Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, retained its austere eloquence when I saw
it Nov. 4. Despite striking solo roles, this is essentially an ensemble
piece in which Tudor emphasizes broken choreographic lines from the First
Song onward. That song introduces a grieving soloist (Michele Wiles) and
a stoic community, moving with halting walks.

In the Second Song, whenever a man (Roman Zhurbin) lifts
a woman (Melanie Hamrick), she either crumples up or grows rigid. The
Third Song begins with lines of people holding one another in what look
like solemn folk dances. Then a soloist (in this case, the admirable Jared
Mathews) detaches himself from the group in leaps that make him resemble
a wounded bird.

A woman (the equally effective Adrienne Schulte) moves uncertainly
in the Fourth Song until men try to shelter her. The Fifth song begins
with turbulent ensemble steps, before giving way to bewildered, pain-wracked
leaps for a man (Carlos Lopez). Despite hints of pent-up violence here,
the choreography never explodes. Instead, the community is finally seen
with hands clasped as if in prayer, and everyone exits in resignation.
But the last woman's faltering steps suggest that this is no facile happy
ending.

Both "Dark Elegies" and Jooss's "Green Table"
focus on serious issues. Jooss shows a war, yet never tells us what that
war was about. War is inherently terrible, he implies. "Dark Elegies"
presents the aftermath of a disaster without indicating the nature of
that disaster. Although the texts for Mahler's songs concern a family
tragedy, Tudor goes beyond private grief to depict communal mourning.
But what has occasioned it?

Many years ago, a press representative for England's Ballet
Rambert told me that whenever that company toured "Elegies,"
communities that had recently faced disasters at sea (and Nadia Benois's
scenery does depict a stormy coast) assumed that the ballet concerned
tragedies akin to their own, while inland audiences related it to mine
collapses or factory fires.

"Dark Elegies" evokes all such situations, making
local events universal. Like Jooss, Tudor honors and pities people struggling
in terrible times. We live in such times now. No wonder "Dark Elegies"
and "The Green Table" have such a lasting impact.